Historical information

Printed at the Theater for the author, MDCCVII . And sold by Mr . Bateman in Pater -Noster-Row, London: and Jeremiah Pepyat bookseller at Dublin.

Lhuyd [Lhwyd; formerly Lloyd], Edward (1659/60?-1709), was a naturalist and philologist and the Keeper of the Ashmolean Museum. Lhuyd was a pioneering linguist. In the late 17th century, Lhuyd was contacted by a group of scholars, led by John Keigwin of Mousehole, who were trying to preserve and further the Cornish language and he accepted the invitation to travel to Cornwall to study the language. Early Modern Cornish was the subject of a study published by Lhuyd in 1702; it differs from the medieval language in having a considerably simpler structure and grammar. In 1707, having been assisted in his research by fellow Welsh scholar Moses Williams, he published the first volume of Archaeologia Britannica: an Account of the Languages, Histories and Customs of Great Britain, from Travels through Wales, Cornwall, Bas-Bretagne, Ireland and Scotland. This book is an important source for its linguistic description of Cornish, but even more so for its understanding of historical linguistics. Some of the ideas commonly attributed to linguists of the nineteenth century have their roots in this work by Lhuyd, who was "considerably more sophisticated in his methods and perceptions than [Sir William] Jones’’.
Lhuyd noted the similarity between the two Celtic language families: Brythonic or P–Celtic (Breton, Cornish and Welsh); and Goidelic or Q–Celtic (Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic). He argued that the Brythonic languages originated in Gaul (France), and that the Goidelic languages originated in the Iberian Peninsula. Lhuyd concluded that as the languages had been of Celtic origin, the people who spoke those languages were Celts. From the 18th century, the peoples of Brittany, Cornwall, Ireland, Isle of Man, Scotland and Wales were known increasingly as Celts, and are regarded as the modern Celtic nations today. (Wikipedia)

Physical description

Oversize book. Includes the original languages of England and Ireland, Amoric Grammar, Amoric-English Vocabulary, Welsh words ommitted from Dr Davies' dictionary, Cornish Grammar, Ancient Scottish language, Irish-English Dictionary.

Four page index which includes the errata, has the list of subscribers, mainly 3 columns per page. Includes a Cornish Grammar and dictionary of the Irish language, Archaeologia Britannica, Giving Some Account Additional to What Has Been Hitherto Published, of The Languages, Histories and Customs of the Original Inhabitants of Great Britain: From Collections and Observations in Travels Through Wales, Cornwal, Bas-Bretagne, Ireland and Scotland. Chapters on: The comparative Etymology, The comparative Vocabulary, The Armoric Grammar and Vocabulary, Dr Davies's Dictionary, Cornish Grammar, Catalogue of British Manuscripts in Welsh and Latin, Essay towards a British Etymologicon, The Introduction to the Irish, Irish Dictionary etc.